Bib Fortuna

Backstory Bib Fortuna is a member of the Twi'lek species, humanoids distinguished by the pair of long tentacular appendages that protrude from the back of their heads, which are known as lekku. Fortuna is the first Twi'lek character to appear in Star Wars, although the species did not receive a name until the publication of the Star Wars Sourcebook, a 1987 sourcebook for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. With pale, mucus-covered skin and sharp, snaggly teeth, Fortuna is originally from the planet Ryloth, the Twi'lek homeworld. Fortuna works as the majordomo and chief aide for Jabba the Hutt, and vetting them before they appear before Jabba. Fortuna's dialogue in the film is delivered in Huttese, the fictional language also spoken by Jabba. With the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film were rebranded as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise in April 2014. As a result, storylines and character histories established for Fortuna before April 2014 are part of the Legends canon, but not the Disney canon. In his back story established by the Expanded Universe, Bib Fortuna is born into a family engaged in the Outer Rim portion of the galaxy. and leads to a planetwide breakdown of order. For example, the rancor that Jabba keeps underneath a trap door in his throne room was originally presented to him by Fortuna as a birthday gift. Fortuna also originally captured Salacious B. Crumb, a small creature that sat beside Jabba's tail on his throne and served as a court jester in the palace. Crumb was a stowaway thief aboard Jabba's ship when Fortuna captured him and presented him to Jabba before the events of the film. Fortuna greets them coldly at first, but becomes intrigued upon learning they have a gift for the Hutt. He attempts to obtain more information about the gift, but the droids insist their instructions are to give it only to Jabba himself. Fortuna whispers advice into Jabba's ear and feeds him information as Jabba sits on his throne. Jabba gives orders to Fortuna that Luke Skywalker is not to be admitted to the palace. When Skywalker later arrived, Fortuna is among the first to intercept him and initially forbids him from speaking to Jabba. Fortuna later travels with Jabba aboard the Hutt's sail barge to the planned executions of Skywalker, Solo, and Solo's first mate Chewbacca at the Great Pit of Carkoon, where they are to be fed to a creature called a sarlacc. A skirmish breaks out between Skywalker and his friends and Jabba's thugs, resulting in the death of Jabba and the destruction of the sail barge. His fate in the official canon is similar. The Phantom Menace Bib Fortuna appears briefly in The Phantom Menace (1999), the first film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. He stands alongside Jabba the Hutt during the podrace, from which a young Anakin Skywalker emerges victorious. In The Book of Boba Fett episode "Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm", Bib Fortuna's death at Boba Fett's hand is briefly shown again via archive footage from "Chapter 16: The Rescue". Other Star Wars media Legends canon One of Bib Fortuna's first non-film appearances is in "A Rancor Comes to Tatooine", a short story included in The Star Wars Sourcebook (1987). The story describes the rivalry between Fortuna and a Corellian named Bidlo Kwerve, both of whom are competing to become Jabba the Hutt's majordomo in a period prior to Return of the Jedi. Kwerve and Fortuna acquire the rancor as a birthday gift for Jabba, and Fortuna earns the majordomo job, while Kwerve is ultimately eaten by the rancor. This storyline is expanded upon in ''Tales from Jabba's Palace'', a 1995 anthology book written from the perspectives of multiple background characters in the Jabba's palace scenes of Return of the Jedi. In the book, after Jabba receives the rancor gift, he offers Fortuna and Kwerve a choice of two rewards: one can become his majordomo, while the other will receive an unspecified "greater honor". Fortuna's back story is particularly expanded upon in the short story "Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale", by M. Shayne Bell. In that story, Fortuna protects his friend Nat Secura, whom Jabba wants to kill by feeding him to the rancor. Secura is the last descendant of a great Twi'lek house, and Fortuna uses Secura's power to sell other Twi'leks into slavery. To protect Secura, Fortuna seeks assistance from his allies, the mysterious B'omarr monks, religious beings that have transplanted their brains into nutrient-filled jars attached to spider-like droid walkers. Fortuna has the monks remove Secura's brain shortly before Secura's body, under Jabba's orders, is thrown to the rancor and eaten. When Jabba is later killed on his sail barge by Princess Leia at the Great Pit of Carkoon, Fortuna watches the Hutt die and does nothing to prevent it. Fortuna then flees on his private skiff and returns to Jabba's palace, where he expects to take over the criminal operation. There, however, the monks decide the best fate for Fortuna is for his own brain to be transferred into one of their droid walkers, Fortuna appears in his disembodied droid walker form in a four-issue arc of the Star Wars: X-wing Rogue Squadron comic book entitled Battleground: Tatooine (1996). In it, he is the captive of Firith Olan, a fellow Twi-lek criminal who Fortuna had called to Tatooine prior to the death of Jabba the Hutt. Upon arriving and finding Fortuna's brain trapped in a droid walker, Olan begins operating his own criminal enterprise out of Jabba's palace, taking delight in mocking and torturing the helpless Fortuna. After Olan becomes injured, Fortuna has his own consciousness transferred into Olan's body, leaving Olan's brain now trapped within the droid. with the intention of capturing Jabba and taking over his criminal enterprise. The plot fails when it is interrupted by a separate assassination attempt against Jabba. One of Fortuna's co-conspirators, a red-skinned alien named Nivek, nearly gives Fortuna's plot away in front of Jabba, but Fortuna shoots him in the head to silence him. Fortuna appears in the 2000 video game Star Wars: Demolition, in which the player participates in vehicular combat contests at the behest of Jabba the Hutt. Fortuna can be seen in the menu screen describing the various terrains the player could choose for the battles. Fortuna is a playable character in the video games Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (2006) and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2007). He also appears in the webcomic Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Valsedian Operation, which was first published between 2010 and 2011. In the comic, a group of Jedi including Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano investigate an illegal mining operation using slave labor in the Valsedian asteroid belt. The Jedi are informed of it by Jabba the Hutt, who believes his distant cousin Torpo is running the operation. However, upon investigation, the Jedi learn that the venture is secretly masterminded by Bib Fortuna. Fortuna plays a supporting role in ''Smuggler's Gambit, a radio drama recorded live at Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, Florida in August 2012. The story follows Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia searching for a location for a new Rebel base following the events of the first Star Wars'' film. After Solo and Chewbacca are captured and placed on sale at an auction, Fortuna attempts to buy them on behalf of Jabba the Hutt, entering into a bidding war with Prince Xizor of the Black Sun criminal organization. Official canon Fortuna appears in the mobile strategy game Star Wars Commander (2014), in which he becomes involved in a conflict with a mercenary named Saponza. After Saponza kills multiple henchmen of Jabba the Hutt who had interfered with his property on Tatooine, Fortuna arranges for Saponza's home to be burned down. In the comic, Darth Vader forcibly enters Jabba's palace to meet with the Hutt, and Fortuna briefly tries to stop him, but becomes frightened and allows him to pass after Vader threatens him with his lightsaber. The scene mirrors that of Fortuna confronting Luke Skywalker as he enters the palace in Return of the Jedi, but establishes a direct contrast between Luke's non-aggressive behavior toward Fortuna and Vader's more threatening manner. A Twi'lek character named Beezer Fortuna, a cousin of Bib Fortuna, appears in the Star Wars anthology film Rogue One (2016), which is set shortly before the events of the first Star Wars film. Beezer's look is based upon preliminary sketches of Bib Fortuna from Return of the Jedi. His nickname among Rogue One's crew during production was "Cousin Bib", so Lucasfilm executive Pablo Hidalgo made their familial connection official while writing Beezer's back story. The character's first name derives from the "High Beeser of Hoth", a title belonging to Bib Fortuna in early Return of the Jedi drafts, but which was ultimately abandoned in later versions. According to Beezer's back story, he resents his family's participation in the criminal underworld, ==Characterization==

Outwardly, Bib Fortuna appears very loyal and obedient to Jabba the Hutt, Fortuna is a powerful and dreaded individual in the galaxy's underground community, though also somewhat cowardly, ==Concept and creation==

Conception Bib Fortuna was created by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas, co-writers of the Return of the Jedi screenplay. In early drafts of the script, Fortuna was referred to by the title "High Beeser of Hoth", Initially, the Return of the Jedi screenplay did not specify that Fortuna belonged to an alien species, but he was described in the final script as "a humanlike alien with long tentacles protruding from his skull". and Ralph McQuarrie. Several of these sketches looked very different from Fortuna as he appeared in the final film. For example, one of Rodis-Jamero's sketches portrayed Fortuna with a thin, cylindrical head with gills along the sides, Those discarded sketches served as the basis for another Star Wars species called the Adnerem, which appear in the Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game and other later works. Other variations by Rodis-Jamero presented Fortuna in blue, priest-like robes, occasionally holding a sceptre, with a lined, elongated face and narrow slits for eyes and nostrils. McQuarrie's early sketches of Bib Fortuna were, in his words, "more human" than the final design. He drew several versions with a variety of alien faces, Michael Carter, the actor who portrayed Fortuna, spent three months undergoing extensive makeup casts and tests for the character at Elstree Studios before shooting began. Molds were made from his hands and head. It took about eight-and-a-half hours to apply the makeup to Carter the first time, though the process was eventually reduced to slightly under an hour. Carter wore a large rubber headpiece, which included two large, slug-like tentacles that twisted around his neck. Each tentacle was five feet long and draped ornamentally around Fortuna's shoulders. Carter wore dayglow orange contact lenses, An optician was available for Carter at all times during filming to apply the lenses. Carter said the contacts were made in "too much of a rush" and were too small, so he suffered abrasions of the cornea, slightly hindering his vision until about a week after filming ended. The teeth made it difficult for the actor to speak, and he had to strongly articulate Fortuna's lines to make the lip-movement look appropriate. The costume consisted of a three-layer velveteen overcoat over a turquoise faille gown, with knee-high boots custom made by London shoemaker Anello & Davide. The shoes were soft-soled, and meant to allow for silent movement. Carter wore lifts on his feet to make himself taller, and props inside his costume made his arms appear longer. Carter would stand very still between takes to avoid disrupting the makeup, and occasionally crew members, seeing him standing among the various puppets and alien props, would believe he was a prop and attempt to lift him. Filming It took five weeks to film Bib Fortuna's scenes for Return of the Jedi. He got them about four days before filming began, with all dialogue and information about other characters redacted. Since Fortuna's dialogue was in an alien language, and since he had little knowledge about the rest of the film, Carter did not know anything about the storyline of Return of the Jedi during the filming process. The scenes in which Bib Fortuna and Luke Skywalker meet at the palace entrance were filmed on January 12 and 13. During another scene, Bib Fortuna lifts a captured Princess Leia and pushes her toward Jabba the Hutt, so he can lick her. While filming the scene, Carter misjudged actress Carrie Fisher's weight, and lifted her so quickly that he nearly pushed her straight into the mouth of the Jabba puppet, causing her to scream. Several scenes involving Fortuna were cut from Return of the Jedi, including one in which Salacious B. Crumb, the small creature that sits at the tail of Jabba the Hutt, vomits into Fortuna's beverage. In another cut scene, Fortuna engages in a provocative dance with Jess, one of Jabba's dancers, who was portrayed by Amanda Noar. George Lucas eliminated the scene because he felt it was inappropriate for children. Another cut scene involved a longer exchange between Luke Skywalker and Fortuna after Skywalker first appeared at Jabba's palace. In the original scene, the two had a long period of dialogue while walking down the corridor, with both actors speaking the fictional language of Huttese. During one take, Carter had to shout at Skywalker, and his false teeth accidentally came out and hit actor Mark Hamill's face. The scene was ultimately cut and a shorter scene with Fortuna and Skywalker speaking in a stairway was used instead. During filming, both actors spoke in English, but Fortuna's dialogue was dubbed in Huttese later. ==Portrayals==

Michael Carter The role of Bib Fortuna was cast very early in the production process for Return of the Jedi because makeup artist Stuart Freeborn wanted to get started on creating the character's look as quickly as possible. Director Richard Marquand had also seen and enjoyed Carter's theater work, and wanted to cast him as Fortuna; Marquand happened upon Carter as he was leaving for the day, During the 30-minute meeting, also describing it as a children's film, and Carter reluctantly agreed. Only then did Marquand reveal that it was a Star Wars film. Carter had never seen the original Star Wars film, and had only seen the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, because he was working at the time in a theater production with Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in the film. and has made appearances at sci-fi and fantasy conventions. Carter was offered the opportunity to reprise the role of Bib Fortuna in the prequel The Phantom Menace, but he declined due to the rigors associated with the makeup application. and had unsuccessfully auditioned to voice Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. He was cast after Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt approached him in 1983, while Bauersfeld was producing a radio drama with Lucasfilm sound designer Randy Thom and suggested he audition for the part of Ackbar. The recording session for Fortuna's dialogue took about 30 minutes, and Bauersfeld made up the voice on the spot after looking at a photograph of Fortuna, without having any other information about the character. Since Fortuna spoke in the Huttese alien language, Bauersfeld had no idea what the character was saying when he recited the lines. He said of the process: "Ben (Burtt) gave me a general idea and I just did it." Bauersfeld did not receive an on-screen credit for his roles as Fortuna or Ackbar, Michael Carter did not know another actor's voice was used, as late as 2004 he believed it was his own voice, saying in an interview: "It sounded like my voice." and knew no details about Fortuna, asking the interviewer: "He was the bad guy, wasn't he?" portrayed Fortuna in the podrace scenes in The Phantom Menace, which marked his first acting role. Wood was offered the part after George Lucas saw him in a doorway during a meeting and felt he looked right for the part. According to Wood, Lucas told him, "You're kind of skinny and creepy" before offering him the part and sending him to wardrobe to be fitted with prosthetics. Wood interacted with a light stand during filming, which was later replaced by a visual effect creating Jabba. The moment when Wood woke up a sleeping Jabba at the end of the podrace was a joke conceived by the motion picture visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic during the making of the film, which George Lucas loved. Wood reprised the role of Fortuna in the ''Smuggler's Gambit radio drama, recorded live at Star Wars'' Celebration VI in Orlando in August 2012. This time he provided the voice for the character, something he did not do in the film. Other portrayals Bib Fortuna was voiced by David Dukes in the radio dramitization of Return of the Jedi released in 1996 by Highbridge Audio. Alan Ruscoe, who portrayed the Jedi master Plo Koon and the Neimoidian captain Daultay Dofine in The Phantom Menace, also portrayed Fortuna in a scene before the Galactic Senate, but it was ultimately cut from the final film. ==Cultural impact==

Critical reception The name and first photo of Bib Fortuna were first revealed to the public in a Return of the Jedi poster book published by Paradise Press in May 1983, the first of four such magazines released in advance of the film. In his 1983 review of Return of the Jedi, Desmond Ryan of The Philadelphia Inquirer cited Fortuna as one of the diverse types of alien species in the film that "reaffirms the inventiveness and inspiration of Lucas and his legions of craftsmen and technicians". Ryan also said Fortuna "looks like David Bowie with a large bratwurst sausage growing out of his ear". CNET writer Sam Stone called Fortuna "one of the most memorable" characters and alien races from Return of the Jedi and described him as "a fan-favorite character". Daniel Mallory Ortberg, an author and editor who has written a Star Wars short story for the anthology book From a Certain Point of View (2017), has said ''Tales from Jabba's Palace and reading the back story of Bib Fortuna and other characters was one of the first times the franchise strongly resonated with him. Comedian and actor Nick Swardson called Bib Fortuna one of his favorite Star Wars'' characters. Merchandise An action figure of Bib Fortuna was released by Kenner Products in 1983, coinciding with the release of Return of the Jedi. The toy was distributed in Europe by the company Palitoy. The action figure came with a miniature staff, but five known prototypes exist in which he wears a white cloak, and they are considered among the most rare and valuable Star Wars toys. Several other Bib Fortuna products were released in 1983, including an eraser by Butterfly Originals, and a cookie by Pepperidge Farm. A Bib Fortuna toy was released in 1993 as part of the Star Wars Bend-Ems line by JusToys, a collection of rubber figures that could be easily bent and twisted. In 1996, Bib Fortuna was one of the Star Wars characters to receive its own Micro Machines mini-transforming playsets by Galoob. The toy line included miniature versions of the head of each character, which opened to reveal a small set from the film and a figurine of the character itself. The Fortuna playset was sold as part of a collection that also included an Imperial Scout Trooper and Figrin D'an, one of the Mos Eisley Cantina band members. Fortuna was also included in a Micro Machines playset of the planet Tatooine, which included both Jabba's palace and the Great Pit of Carkoon. A Bib Fortuna action figure was released in 1997 as part of Kenner's The Power Of The Force toy line, as part of the 20th anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars film. Also in 1997, Kenner released a two-pack of 12-inch figures of Fortuna and Luke Skywalker. A ceramic mug of Fortuna was released in 1996 as part of the Star Wars Classic Collectors Series Figural Mug line by the toy company Applause. Between 1997 and 1999, the Japanese company JAP Inc. created a series of large silver sculpted Star Wars rings from the various Star Wars characters, including Bib Fortuna. A Lego figurine of Bib Fortuna was created and released as part of multiple Lego Star Wars toy sets, including one of the front gate of Jabba's palace released in 2003, and another of the interior of the palace released in 2012. Fortuna was one of 55 Star Wars skins released in November 2014 for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions of the video game Minecraft. A Funko Pop figurine of Fortuna was released in 2015. In 2017, the company Gentle Giant made a limited run of 750 miniature busts of Bib Fortuna, utilizing 3-D technology to create a 1:6-scale replica of the character. An auction was held by the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions in August 2018 for a collection of 33 rare Star Wars action figures that were expected to sell for about $360,000. The 1980s master model of the Bib Fortuna toy by Kenner Products was sold at the Thornaby-based Vectis Auctions for in April 2019. It had an estimated value of before the auction, but sold for the highest amount of any of the Star Wars prototypes auctioned, including an Emperor's Royal Guard that sold for and Ewok named Logray that sold for . The models were saved by a Palitoy tooling manager who had kept them following the release of the figures. In 2021 and 2023, Hasbro released two super-articulated action figures of Bib Fortuna based on his appearances in both Return of the Jedi and The Book of Boba Fett. ==References==